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Adult Playgounds

When I think happy hour or patio, I think San Felipe’s Cantina at Tempe Marketplace. And the security guys literally wear shirts that say “Playground Monitor.”

But…amazing weather doesn’t always mean patio-sitting. My knees have been feeling great and with t-minus one week until I’m getting back to running with a training program for my next race, I’m spending this extended weekend at a different kind of adult playground.

The idea of “seven in seven” was brought to my attention last fall. Yeah, it’s a thing. This 2006 article from the local newspaper lists the highest peaks in seven of the valley’s parks with some, as they call them, “fudge factors.”

The idea was to do one a day, every day for a week. But, that’s not super convenient AND I would live in fear that on the very last day there would be a torrential downpour that would ruin the whole thing.

So, overachiever that I am, I decided to knock them out in five, just in case.

I started today. And then quickly reconsidered the whole plan.

After work, I trekked up Piestewa Peak. Just 2.4 miles, but “strenuous.” Uh, yeah. I took a few breaks to, ahem, enjoy the view, on the way up, but I was pretty motivated to keep going.

Then I got to the meanest, most evil stairmaster I’ve ever seen in my life:

I’m pretty sure it called me a little bitch. Told you it was nasty. This was the view from the bottom of that stairmaster.

Quite lovely, but I was headed up, up, up still:

The stairmasters actually got worse, but I didn’t pause for any more pictures, I just kept going and eventually I got here, with the help of Party Like a Rockstar on my iPod (seriously it came on right as I got to the super steep almost-end). Come on, ROCKstar?! I know a seven-year-old who would fully appreciate the humor in that.

Yeah, pretty worth it. Heading back down was much better. I felt great. It was a little slippery and unstable, but I didn’t fall. Yay! I’m superpumped to head out again and discover more playgrounds this weekend. Assuming I can actually move tomorrow, that is!